Saturday, 16 November 2013

I never 'saw' this blog entry coming.!

Following on from my previous blog entries on sign writing, I'm really getting back into sign writing and felt the need to try something different, so recently I have been looking for an old hand saw that I could make into a fun sign. I have been searching the car boot sales for what seems like ages, then last week I hit the jackpot. I saw 4 old rusting hand saw's under a table at the car boot, I picked one to have a look and the seller said I could have all four for the grand total of 50p, (about 80 cents) so how could I refuse. They were just what I was looking for, the two larger ones looked old and were rusting slightly, the two smaller ones I haven't really got a use for as yet, but for the price they cost me if I try something and it doesn't work then all I have lost is 50p. The idea I had in my mind I got from VW shows I have attended in the past, there is a guy there who sells hand saw's, gasoline cans, push bikes etc and they are all sign written and pinstriped and they look fantastic. I'm not going to be anywhere near as good as him, but we all have to start somewhere, right? and as this will be my first time sign writing on rusty metal, we'll have to see how it comes out.

Bargain find, not sure what I will do with thetwo smaller saws, but I'm sure I'll find a usefor them somewhere. For this project I havein mind I will use one of the larger saws.

This saw has a lovely shaped handle madeby a craftsman, however...

Upon closer inspection the handle is riddledwith wood worm, not sure how long it wouldbe before they ruined the whole handle so Iopted to use the other large saw.

Although not quite as pretty, it looks like a good base to start my project.

A good solid handle in a traditional shape. Theblade is blunt and rusting and for this projectI will leave it just like it is.

The first job to do was to sketch out what I was going to put onto the blade. I thought ofsome wording and maybe a pin stripe or two around the edges. I decided to use an oldlooking font just for a change. Here I have sketched out the wording but it looks blandat this stage.

To give the wording a bit more body, I decidedto add a 3D look to it. I had decided on a twotone colour scheme for the lettering.

When writing on an old rusty steel saw, if I hadused a normal pencil to sketch out the designI would never have seen it, so I used this Stabilo type pencil. They are brilliant and comein black and white and will write on almostsurface, metal / glass / wood and rusty old saws.

Brilliant invention that is cheap to buy, lasts along time and something I cannot do without.

As this was my first attempt at painting onto a rusty saw blade I thought I'd better have a little practise. I got the other large saw, got out the permanent marker and quickly sketched outthe VW letters. I then painted it in the colourI had chosen.

OK, so the turquoise went on OK, now to high-light the letters in antique white. Once I hadcompleted the white, I got the fine line markerout and jut tidied up the edges. Not a bad firsteffort, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would bepainting on a rusty blade.

Feeling confident I started to paint the saw inthe turquoise. That small blob of paint in the plastic tub was more than enough to give allthe wording 2 coats to ensure it covered the rust evenly.

The turquoise blue finished, the wording looksOK at this stage but it does need the 3D look.

I used the same antique white for the 3Dhighlights, which I think suits the font nicely.So that is the wording finished, so time to thinkabout the pinstripe around the outer edge, justto finish it off.

I had decided on a brilliant white and yellowfor the 2 pinstripe colours. Yellow is a veryopaque colour so I decided to give the sawa base coat of white to ensure the yellowcovered. As I mentioned this is my first attemptat painting on a saw, and already there arethings I should have done differently...

For example, although the wording does getsmaller it still wasn't small enough to add the pinstripes! Maybe I should have put more thought into the design before I started to paint, never mind, live and learn.

The finished piece. OK it's not bad, but it's notbrilliant either. There are so many things I willdo differently next time. I had intended to givethis piece to a mate to hang up in his workshop,but to be honest I don't think it's good enough.Like I said, this was my first time for saw painting, and I'm a quick learner so we'll seehow much I really learnt on the next saw.!

About My 1969 Microbus.

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